The relationship between hypertension and anxiety or depression in Hong Kong Chinese

Abstract

Background: Psychosocial stress can be the cause or the consequence of hypertension. Objective: To study the association between hypertension and anxiety or depression in adults from Hong Kong, China. Subjects and methods: Patients with diagnosed hypertension (n=197) were recruited to complete the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) questionnaire. The control group comprised 182 normotensive subjects recruited using random telephone numbers. Results: The score in the anxiety subscale (HADS-A) of the HADS correlated with age (r= -0.23, P<0.001) and sex (r=0.11, P=0.042), and was found to be higher in women. The score in the depression subscale (HADS-D) correlated with age (r=0.17, P=0.003) and hypertension (r=0.12, P=0.039), but not with sex (r=0.02, P=0.68). When the control subjects were matched for sex and age with the subjects with hypertension, the mean HADS-A score was 5.51±0.41 in 113 hypertensive subjects and 4.38±0.39 in 113 normotensive subjects (P=0.047). The mean HADS-D score was 5.56±0.39 in the hypertensive and 4.76±0.32 in the normotensive subjects (P=0.11). Multiple regression analysis using data from both groups indicated that the HADS-A score was related to the HADS-D score (β=0.49, P<0.001), age (β= -0.25, P<0.001) and sex (β=0.12, P=0.01) (R 2=0.28), whereas the HADS-D score was related to the HADS-A score (β=0.48, P<0.001), age (Β=0.30, P<0.001), positive smoking status (β=0.13, P=0.004) and lack of exercise habit (β=0.12, P=0.008) (R 2=0.31). Hypertension was related to waist circumference, history of parental hypertension and age (R 2=0.38, P<0.001). Anxiety and depression scores were rejected as independent variables. Conclusions: Hypertension was associated with anxiety but not depression; however, age, history of parental hypertension and central obesity appeared to have a stronger association with hypertension in adults from Hong Kong. © 2005 Pulsus Group Inc. All rights reserved.